Kirk Cousins shares smiles at youth football camp

Saturday

Jul 12, 2014 at 3:32 PMJul 12, 2014 at 3:32 PM

By Michael.Appelgate@hollandsentinel.com(616) 546-4271

As if Kirk Cousins just threw a winning touchdown, the NFL backup quarterback for the Washington Redskins raced across the field, and then took off his shirt.A light rain fell Saturday morning at Hope College’s Ray & Sue Smith Stadium, and Cousins twirled his short-sleeved shirt above his head as he ran alongside a celebrating team at his youth football camp. A touchdown pass was just caught in overtime, and Cousins ran amongst his camp participants with a smile as big as theirs.That’s how much fun he’s having with his Kirk Cousins Football Camp now in its second year. The Holland Christian graduate shared many laughs during his two-day camp, and even had a special lunch with the fathers of the participants."This combines a lot of my passions and to do it in my hometown makes it so much more special," Cousins said. "This year I think we’ve made it an even better camp and hopefully year three can be better as well."There were 221 middle school players who participated in the camp, up from about 150 last year. More than 30 coaches were on-hand to instruct the young football players not just football skills, but more to have fun.Andrew Blanchard, an eighth grader, came all the way from Engadine in the Upper Peninsula to learn from an NFL player. He was quarterback for the team who scored the winning touchdown, prompting Cousins to take his shirt off."That was pretty sweet," Blanchard said, "knowing that a professional football player is at your camp and spending time with you and talking to you. We look up to those guys and he cheering us on is pretty cool."About 20 Hope football players were coaches for Cousins’ camp. Former Flying Dutchman captain and 2014 Hope graduate Greg Bird said it was tough to put into words how cool it was to coach alongside Cousins."Any time you see him out in public, on TV or on the radio or being interviewed, he’s the same way in-person," Bird said. "He’s a great guy with a lot of integrity."The camp is structured to what Cousins would have wanted when he was 13 or 14 years old."The big things I want to emphasize are fun and competition, and usually the two come together," Cousins said. "When I went to youth camps when I was a kid, sometimes I thought there were too many drills. I wanted to play games and compete so I wanted to make sure in this camp we had a chance to compete and have fun doing it."My vision is for them to say this was the best two days of the summer."